BLOOD ON THE PATH

Harvey Tyson releases novel dealing with rich tapestry of history. (Review by Michael Green)

Harvey Tyson, a former editor of the Johannesburg Star, has tackled a very big subject in his latest novel, Blood on the Path: the story of the fifty years between 1880 and 1930 in which South Africa grew from a collection of colonial outposts and small republics into the major modern state it is today (in most ways).

It is a section of our history that has been rather neglected, especially in recent times, when the accent has been very much on what happened before and after the peaceful revolution of 1994. Modern developments had their beginnings much further back, and this book gives a fascinating picture of how the future was formed.

It is not a formal history. It is a novel, but not an historical novel in the ordinary meaning of the phrase as a work of fiction in an historical setting. The author himself describes it as “history in novel form”. Many of his characters are fictitious, and vivid, but some of the main personae are people who were very much alive and who made their mark one way or another on South Africa: John X. Merriman and William Schreiner, prime ministers of the Cape and among the first of the white liberals; Cecil Rhodes, the enigmatic empire-builder, a curious mixture of vision and ruthlessness; Paul Kruger, the dogged and shrewd Boer leader; Pixley ka Seme and John Dube, founders of the ANC; General Smuts and Deneys Reitz; Chief Langalibalele and King Cetshwayo; and many others, from newspaper editors to prizefighters.

It is a rich tapestry. Conventional histories can be tedious if the reader becomes bogged down in dates and details. The great virtue of Harvey Tyson’s book is that it is an entirely readable story. It is a long one (542 pages), but the skilful use of dialogue and incident ensures that the reader’s interest does not flag.
The author has obviously put an enormous amount of research into this volume, and the story has the feel of veracity throughout. For example, the descriptions of the early mining days of Johannesburg and Kimberley are well documented and entertaining. The fictitious characters are convincing and the real ones, recorded by history, are treated with admirable detachment. In many passages of narrative and dialogue the author has drawn on his imagination, as a novelist should, but his understanding of the factual background makes these passages both persuasive and beguiling.

This blend of history and fiction is an unusual book, a saga that impresses and entertains and informs, with a wide range of fascinating detail about the South Africa of a century and more ago.

Published by Springbok Press, Blood on the Path retails at R230. Highly recommended. - Michael Green